Reporters Without Borders (RSF) sent an open letter to Ollanta Humala, Peru’s new president, asking him to follow through on his campaign promise to decriminalize media offenses and end existing legal cases against journalists, EFE reports.
As tempers simmered over the sentencing of newspaper employees for defaming Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, one citizen decided to file a similar lawsuit. But this time it was against President Correa for comments the head of state made about him, Hoy reports. Executives and a columnist of El Universo were sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $40 million in damages to the president.
A court in El Salvador has ruled against Colonel José Arturo Rodríguez Martínez in his defamation suit against La Prensa Gráfica newspaper for an article alleging he had ties to Mexican drug traffickers, El Mundo reports.
A court temporarily stayed a libel and slander case against Grisel Bethancourt, the president of Panama's National Journalism Guild (CONAPE), over an article with judicial information about the slaying of a girl, TVN News reported.
Peru’s Congress has passed a bill replacing prison time for defamation and libel offenses with fines and community service, Perú.com reports. The change was passed June 21, but it still needs the president’s signature to become law.
On July 20, a group of journalists in the northeast Brazilian state of Paraíba sent an open letter to the state’s Brazilian Bar Association section (OAB/PB) and the Paraiba Press Association, in which they allege persecution and freedom of expression violations by regional authorities, Paraíba 1 reports.
Every day dozens of celebrities worldwide are hounded by the press for scoops on things like alleged plastic surgeries, pregnancies, or their romantic lives. A member of Chile’s House of Deputies, inspired by recent press harassment faced by a former beauty queen, believes that journalists have gone too far and that their behavior needs to be reined in.
The directors of El Universo newspaper in Ecuador announced that the newspaper would continue circulating and reporting, in spite of the July 20 ruling that sentenced the paper, its directors, and an editor to $40 million in damages and three years in prison.
The National Board of Elections (JNE), Peru’s highest electoral authority, has presented a formal complaint against Uri Ben Schmuel, the director of La Razón newspaper, for not including the complete datasheet of a poll published in the paper, the Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reports.
Two journalists from Canal 36, an affiliate of Cholusat Sur, received text message death threats after reporting on evidence of alleged misconduct by the Catholic Church in Honduras, El Libertador reports.
The International Association of Broadcasters (IAB) says changes that give more power to the authorities to regulate the media’s role in elections violate freedom of expression, restrict citizen’s access to media, and promote censorship, EFE reports.
A judge sentenced three directors and a columnist at El Universo daily to three years each in prison and $40 million in fines for defaming President Rafael Correa in a February 6 editorial, CNN reports.